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“When did you ever promise to kill yourself falling out of Charlie’s tree?”

diane771 wrote:vampirenerd wrote:Caryn, good point about Ness having Bella's "middle age child" characteristics. Of course it's obvious that Ness matures way faster than normal but I never connected it with how everyone says Bella was born middle age and just kept getting older.

MEC<3, I also have always wondered why, since she has a human mother and a vampire father, that her temperature is higher than normal humans. You would think that her temp would be a little lower than Bella's but not as low as Edward's.

It could be her heart beats at a higher rate and thus the higher tempurature. Her human parts is over compensating for the vampire parts in her.

Thought I would bring the discussion from the previous thread over. I just associated it with a genetic characteristic. Carlisle theorizes that Ness is actually closer in genetic makeup to the shapeshifters, another kind of hybrid species. The pack has 24 chromosomal pairs, where humans have 23 and vampires 25. Remember during Bella's transformation, the burning. She felt as if she was being razed to ash. I always thought a part of that was the physical experience of the change in her genetic make up, the splitting of the chromosomes to form the two additional pairs. So, what if the 24th chromosomal pair is what heats the body to combustion, and the 25th pair is what ices the body over completely (yes, a very simplistic way of explaining it, I know). Thus, Ness, with 24 chromosomal pairs just like the pack, whose temperature has become manageable, would have a higher body temperature because of the additional single chromosome pair, the 24th.

diane771 wrote:vampirenerd wrote:Caryn, good point about Ness having Bella's "middle age child" characteristics. Of course it's obvious that Ness matures way faster than normal but I never connected it with how everyone says Bella was born middle age and just kept getting older.

MEC<3, I also have always wondered why, since she has a human mother and a vampire father, that her temperature is higher than normal humans. You would think that her temp would be a little lower than Bella's but not as low as Edward's.

It could be her heart beats at a higher rate and thus the higher tempurature. Her human parts is over compensating for the vampire parts in her.

Thought I would bring the discussion from the previous thread over. I just associated it with a genetic characteristic. Carlisle theorizes that Ness is actually closer in genetic makeup to the shapeshifters, another kind of hybrid species. The pack has 24 chromosomal pairs, where humans have 23 and vampires 25. Remember during Bella's transformation, the burning. She felt as if she was being razed to ash. I always thought a part of that was the physical experience of the change in her genetic make up, the splitting of the chromosomes to form the two additional pairs. So, what if the 24th chromosomal pair is what heats the body to combustion, and the 25th pair is what ices the body over completely (yes, a very simplistic way of explaining it, I know). Thus, Ness, with 24 chromosomal pairs just like the pack, whose temperature has become manageable, would have a higher body temperature because of the additional single chromosome pair, the 24th.

That makes sense. I think that I tend to explain a lot about Renesmee by her extra chromosomes, but then again, I think Ms. Meyer did too. Anyway, wouldn't that also explain why Jacob was able to imprint on her?

HofJ~ I don't know if I would go so far as to say that. After all, the discussion over on the Jacob thread is about whether or not Jacob could not imprint on Leah because she was also a shifter. But, as a shifter, she would share his chromosome count as well. And, we know that shifters can imprint on humans. So, I wouldn't say that the chromosome count is why he was able to imprint on her. But, it could certainly have something to do with it in that their chromosomal similarity will enable them to have kids together, IMO.

I am still unsure of whether it is realistic that two very different, very distinct species are able to have the same chromosome count. Unfortunely Google is no help ... However Jazz Girl that is a very convincing theory--there is such a thing called chromosome fission that exactly follows onto your explanation of "splitting" of chromosomes ... but the thing is (another thing I am quite unsure of) how is it possible for a human and a vampire to produce a hybrid like Renesmee (I am not referring to her chromosome count) but her characteristics--fast heart beat, above-average tempature ... when neither of her parents had had those characteristics during the time of her conception, and those characteristics aren't exactly "mixed". It doesn't make sense, despite her chromosome count being the same as that of a shapshifter's for her to have the same characteristics as them. Same chromosome count does not equal to same or similar genetic information, as far as I know (I am looking into it). We are 99% similar to apes or chimpanzies (I can't differniate between either), they have 24 pairs, we have 23--just that one percent and look at the difference. What strikes me is that Renesmee does not have, whatsoever any history of ancestors breeding with werewolves--it seems like such a stretch for her to be similar to them--then again, my knowledge of biology is pretty limited seeing as I am only a highschooler! so I am pretty willing to be enlightened.

--rant -- I think I would have have been a lot happier had SM not included interesting things such as genetics and chromosomes in a fantasy book--because then it brings us to a very very important question. How in the world did the shapeshifters obtain 24 pairs when technically (the original wolf that Taha Aki inserted his spirit into) wolves have 39 pairs!! -- end rant--

"I never would have banished him from her society as long as she desired his. . . . . But, till then--if you don't believe me, you don't know me--till then, I would have died by inches before I touched a single hair of his head!"

I don't know, amethyst. I think it was genius of Stephanie Meyer to include the genetics side of the matter in the book. To me, a person who absolutely loves fantasy novels, it was a good idea to do this. That way, she could make this story more realistic, instead of simply a story, it becomes believable. It shows how science is involved with life - even in storybooks. And it also goes to show that Edward and Carlisle (not to mention all of the other characters) have a reason to worry about a loved one's health and why they worry about it, even as "indestructible" vampires. How could Meyer include an explanation of the problem without mentioning the potential cause of the problem - the chromosomes?

And anyway, Edward wouldn't be Edward if he didn't consider all of the possibilities behind why Nessie is the way she is.

And I don't know much about biology either, but look at how the heart starts beating faster during the conversion from human to vampire. Maybe an enzyme from the venom that causes this phenomenon also causes Nessie's accelerated heartbeat. Also the higher body heat might be explained by this theory. Theoretically, if this enzyme was present at the time of Nessie's development in the womb, wouldn't her body try to make up for this difference? Then it would be written into her DNA for her to have a higher heart rate and temperature.

But, I agree that a link between Nessie and the werewolves if pretty questionable. But Edward and Carlisle only ever theorized about such a connection. They never actually proved that it really existed.

And finally, authors include interesting things like this so that we "deep thinkers" have more to ponder over, ergo more time thinking about the book. In the end, look out! We are obsessed with trying to solve the mysteries of the book. And by the time we realize that we're obsessed, it's too late to escape

Genetics discussion was interesting but far from conclusive in the book. One can really go down a rabbit hole if they want to. Is that the red pill or the blue pill...

Any new stuff on New Moon...been out of touch for a few weeks...

Forks was interesting, The Cullen’s house, the Swan Residences and Dr Cullen’s reserved parking spot. They have an envelope of goodies at the towns informational site along with Bella's red truck...across the street is Jacob’s current residences, the dog pound. Slept on La Push beach and heard the waves come in (really peaceful and calming)...The fog never lifted while I was there, there where 4 suffers doing there thing as well. Kids where having a party on the beach that night.

So I thought of something the other day and I wonder what others may think. I personally kind of hated how Bella always seemed to want/need Jacob around (especially in BD) even though she loves Edward and then married him and was pregnant with his child. I could never really understand it. I was thinking about it the other day and I wonder if it's because she never really seemed to have any close friends. She never kept in touch with anyone from Arizona, so obviously no one there was a really close friend. And she never became close to anyone in Forks, I would consider Angela a friend, but didn't seem that close a friendship. So I think part of the reason she wanted him around was because he really is a best friend to her & seem to know & understand her really well. I don't know if that's true but it was something I thought of the other day.

Penny~ It's a loaded question I think. In Breaking Dawn, I truly believe the contention Jacob makes after Bella's transformation. Bella's need for Jake when she was pregnant was, at least in part, a byproduct of the imprinting. Not like the imprint had happened , but he was drawn naturally to where Ness was, even before she was Ness. Before that, through Eclipse, Bella truly loved Jacob. Who can say why? Yes, Bella loves Edward more than her own life, knows without any doubt that her life cannot be without him. But, I truly believe that it is possible to love more than one person at a time in different ways. I do believe Jacob was the natural course of Bella's life in a world without magic and love stronger than gravity.